Statutes and Rules

Plan

1 – The members agreeing to the present statutes found an association under French law, governed by the July 1, 1901 Act and the August 16, 1901 enforcement order, named CHAMP PENAL/PENAL FIELD.

2 – The purpose of the association is the creation and scholarly, administrative and financial operation of a journal, the title of which is CHAMP PENAL/PENAL FIELD (abbreviated as Ch.P../P.F.), subtitle Nouvelle revue française de criminologie / New French Journal of Criminology. The members of the association constitute the reading committee.

3 – This journal, created ex nihilo, does not depend on any other organization or institution. It covers every scholarly discipline contributing to the study of criminology, including law, the social sciences and sciences of the mind as well as philosophy. The journal is electronic and free of charge. Its purpose is above all to serve as a tool for circulating French-language criminological writings in world, and as such will publish bilingual texts.

4 – CHAMP PENAL/PENAL FIELD shall exist for an unlimited period of time.

7 – The reading committee appoints several of its members to an executive boardcomposed of a legal representative, a treasurer, an editor-in-chief, an assistant editor-in-chief and an editorial assistant. They have a three-year mandate, renewable once. The executive board implements the decisions made at the ordinary and extraordinary general assemblies (see art. 21 and 22), and is in charge of the day-to-day operation of the journal. It defines its own working methods. It is chaired by the legal representative.

8 – The legal representative authorizes expenditures and represents CHAMP PENAL/PENAL FIELD before the courts and in every ordinary civil act.

9 – The registered office of CHAMP PENAL/PENAL FIELD is at the home of Thierry Godefroy, 7, Rue Paul Lafargue, 92800, Puteaux, FRANCE. It may be transferred by simple decision of the executive board.

10 – The reading committee appoints several of its members to an editorial board composed of the managing editor and five editorial delegates. They are appointed for a three-year mandate, renewable once. They examine all manuscripts sent to the journal, designate readers and decide whether the articles should be published, once the readers have given their opinion.

11– A series of rules and regulations appended to the present statutes (operating rules for the journal) defines the procedures to be followed by the editorial board. These operating rules will be broadly publicized. They cannot be modified without the consent of the ordinary general assembly.

12 – There can be no simultaneous membership in the executive board and the editorial board.

13 – The reading committee rotates, with renewal of one third of its membership every three years. The first and second thirds to leave will be chosen, in three and six years respectively 2006 and 2009, on a voluntary basis or if necessary by drawing lots. Participation in the reading committee cannot exceed nine years. In the process of renewing the reading committee an effort will be made to maintain a balance between disciplines and between generations, to select equal numbers of men and women and to improve the ratio between French and foreign participants. The executive board and the editorial board may recommend candidates.

15 – At the end of their mandate, former members of the reading committee may, if they so desire, become honorary members and are encouraged to continue to attend general assemblies. They are not allowed to vote.

17 – Membership in CHAMP PENAL/PENAL FIELD is terminated by

a) resignation by a letter sent to the legal representative,

b) death,

c) or being struck off by the reading committee for violation of the present statutes or for a serious misdeed, following a request for the person to justify him/herself before the executive board.

18 – CHAMP PENAL/PENAL FIELD derives its financial means from:

i) the entrance fees paid by the founding members and the new members;

ii) donations;

iii) funding by the French government, its regions, départements, communes and public establishments;

iv) subsidies from international agencies;

v) payment for services rendered by the reading committee (for conferences, colloquia, publications and so on).

19 – The ordinary general assembly of CHAMP PENAL/PENAL FIELD, announced in the journal, is public, but only members of the reading committee may take part in votes. It is convened at least once a year. At least one month before the date set, the members of the reading committee are convened by the legal representative. The notification of the meeting contains the agenda as defined by the executive board. The general assembly is chaired by the legal representative assisted by the other members of the executive board.

- An absolute majority is required for all decisions. Voting can only apply to questions on the agenda. Members who are unable to attend are asked to empower a colleague to represent them.

- The executive board presents the current situation of CHAMP PENAL/PENAL FIELD. The editorial board reports on its past action and suggests orientations for the future. The treasurer reports on the financial situation and asks the general assembly to approve the balance sheet.

- If need be, and when all items on the agenda have been addressed, outgoing members of the reading committee are replaced, by secret ballot. Then, if necessary, a new executive board and editorial board are elected.

20 – The legal representative may convene an extraordinary general assembly, either on his/her own authority or on the request of one third of members of the reading committee. The same formalities are required as in art. 21. The extraordinary general assembly, announced in the journal, is public, but only members of the reading committee are allowed to vote. It settles the questions enumerated below. It may approve any changes in the statutes; it may decide to dissolve CHAMP PENAL/PENAL FIELD, or to merge it with any other association pursuing the same goals. In these various instances, it must be composed of at least one third of members of the reading committee, either present or represented. Decisions by the extraordinary general assembly must be ratified by a majority of two thirds of the members present or represented. If the quorum is not reached, a second meeting is convened, with no quorum requirement.

21 – The proceedings of the general assembly–ordinary or extraordinary–are recorded by the editor-in-chief and signed by another member of the outgoing executive board. These proceedings list members present or represented. They are sent to all members of the reading committee.

22 – If the extraordinary general assembly of CHAMP PENAL/PENAL FIELD pronounces its dissolution, it names one or several liquidators and the assets, if any, are allotted as stipulated in article 9 of the July 1, 1901 Act and the August 16, 1901 enforcement order.

23 – The legal representative, representing the executive board, is in charge of the registration and publication requirements defined by the July 1, 1901 Act and the August 16, 1901 enforcement order.

1 – The editorial board is in charge of selecting articles for publication in the journal, as well as for selecting those papers whose translation into English will be financed by Ch.P./P.F.. Authors who submit a manuscript to Ch.P./P.F. automatically accept the operating rules hereunder.

2 – Articles selected for publication must be of scientific value, well written, original and relevant to issues of public interest. The editorial board is committed to submitting any ethical problem that arises in the course of its work to the reading committee.

3 – Articles must be sent by electronic mail to the editor-in-chief. Before evaluation, the editor-in-chief removes any identifying signs and assigns a number to each manuscript.

4 – When several co-authors sign a single article, it is agreed that the person whose name comes first represents the entire group of co-signers and that the journal will communicate with that person only.

5 – Articles authored by a member of the reading committee are subjected to a special procedure. When they are published in the journal, a reminder of that special procedure is inserted (see art. 23).

6 – Manuscripts must be submitted in French. Although this is not compulsory, writers are requested to include an English translation of their paper. If such is the case, two successive evaluations are done. The French version is evaluated. If the manuscript is accepted for publication in the journal, the English translation of the final version is then evaluated (see art. 20).

7 – The author must certify that the manuscript has not been published previously (in French and/or in English) or been submitted to another journal (on paper or electronic, French or foreign) and will not be submitted to any journal within two months of its transmission to Ch.P./P.F..

8 – No contract is signed with the author, who retains ownership of the article (in French and in English) but cannot request its removal from the journal. Furthermore, for any subsequent use of the French and/or English version of the article, the author promises to insert an explicit reference to “CHAMP PENAL/PENAL FIELD”, including the title and sub-title of the journal in French and English, the original title of the article in French and English, the electronic address of Ch.P./P.F., the date of its publication on the internet). The author also promises to inform the editor-in-chief of Ch.P./P.F. of such publication. If the author makes another use of an English translation financed by Ch.P./P.F., the fact of that funding must also be mentioned in any subsequent publications.

9 –All articles that conform to the editorial rules for submitting manuscripts are transmitted by the editor-in-chief to the three members of the editorial board. If these members agree, the editorial board may reject an article it views as not within the purview of the journal. If such is the case, it informs the editor-in-chief who must inform the author. The executive board reports on articles refused under those circumstances to the reading committee at its annual meeting. Conversely, if a single member of the editorial board is in favor of the article it is considered admissible.

10 – For each article considered admissible, the editorial board assigns two readers from the reading committee. One of them must work in an area close to the subject dealt with in the manuscript (same discipline or area of research), the other will have a more detached view. If they disagree on the decision with respect to the manuscript, the editorial board names a third reader working on a similar subject.

11 – The editorial board makes every effort to choose readers so as to distribute work evenly throughout the reading committee.

12 – Articles must be evaluated within one month of their receipt by the readers. A reader whofeels unable to evaluate an article in the allotted one-month period must inform the editorial board of the fact immediately. A new reader is then assigned. The latter also has one month at most to perform the evaluation.

13 – Positions within the executive board or the editorial board are incompatible with the position of reader.

14 – An article may

a) be accepted as is

b) be refused

c) be accepted, conditioned on modifications suggested by the readers.

15 – The editorial board reports on the outcome of the various evaluation phases to the editor-in-chief who takes appropriate action, informing the author of acceptance as is or refusal, requests for modifications, transmission and verifications or publication in the journal, without awaiting possible translation into English.

16 – The editor-in-chief is the only person authorized to inform an author, briefly, of the reasons behind the rejection of a manuscript. This will be done on the basis of indications provided by the editorial board.

17 – Once an article has been published in the journal it is not removed. At the end of one year it is transferred to the Archives/Articles section where it continues to be available for consultation. Articles may be up-dated by their author(s). The editor-in-chief decides whether publication of the up-dated version must go through the same evaluation process as an original article or whether it may simply be inserted.

18 – Following publication of an article, the editor-in-chief may publish, along side it, remarks sent in by any individual provided the person is clearly identified and the remarks are courteous and written in French or English, and provided the author of the article involved has been informed in advance.

19 – The editorial board informs the executive board regularly of its priorities as to the translation into English of articles accepted for the journal. Translations will be done in accordance with the funds available to Ch.P./P.F.. The executive board allots these funds on the basis of the originality of the manuscripts, the pertinence of the subject for our English-speaking colleagues and the balance, within the journal, between disciplines, between the places of origin of writers and between fields of research.

20 – When an article accepted for publication in the journal is accompanied by an English translation, the latter is appraised by a reader chosen by the editorial board among readers who did not participate in the original evaluation. The translation may

a) be accepted as is,

b) be rejected,

c) be accepted, conditioned by modifications suggested by the reader.

21 – If the translation of the article is financed by the journal, the English version is examined by a reader selected by the editorial board among readers who did not participate in the original evaluation, then sent to the author for his/her consent. When the translation is published mention must be made of the financial contribution of Ch.P./P.F..

22 – In addition to full articles, the journal will include a section called Confrontations containing occasional papers in French and/or English, positions with respect to political or judicial events and so forth. This section will be managed by the executive board. As a rule, these texts will remain in the journal for six months, and then placed in the section Archives/Confrontations.

23 – Special evaluation procedure: for an article submitted by a member of the reading committee, the editorial board chooses readers outside the committee. The same is true of the third reader in case the first two disagree. However, if a manuscript is submitted by a member of the editorial board it is the editor-in-chief who chooses the readers. In this case the decision as to whether to translate the article into English at the expense of Ch.P./P.F. is in the hands of the executive board. In any case, translations of articles by members of the reading committee financed by Ch.P./P.F. cannot represent more than one fourth of all articles translated in that way.

24 – Structure and contents of Ch.P./P.F. will be called upon to change as the journal develops. Every effort will be made, in particular, to take advantage of the potential offered by its entirely electronic character. The operating rules defined above are therefore not fixed once and for all. They may be expected to change on the basis of proposals from the executive board, the editorial board and the reading committee. An effort will also be made to obtain the participation in this reflexive process of all contributors and other people interested in Ch.P./P.F..